“Ostara, the Spring Equinox, takes it’s name from the Goddess Eostar, Eostre or Ostara, a Germanic Goddess of fertility and Spring. We celebrate this festival at the time when day and night are equal in length. The balance of the year has shifted – winter is on the wane and spring officially begins.
Ostara is a joyful holiday, centered around symbols of rebirth and growth; eggs, seeds, baby animals. But Ostara also has a deeper meaning. Because this is the time of balance between dark and light, it is also the time we examine all kinds of balance in our life.”
“At the Winter Solstice, the sun is reborn; at Ostara , the Earth is reborn. All life awakens as the days grow longer.”
from Circle Round: raising children in Goddess traditions
by Starhawk, Diane Baker & Anne Hill
Ostara, the Spring Equinox, falls on the 20th, 21st or 22nd March each year. I was reading this week that it’s unusual for it to fall on a full moon and coinciding with this week’s powerful supermoon was even more of a rare event. Astrologically speaking (and in very simple terms), this moon signified the end of an intense time and a new beginning. With Ostara’s energy of rebirth, new air and new beginnings arriving at the same time it feels as though we’re shifting into newness.
I’m really enjoying sharing this festival with my boys this week, it’s such a lovely one. As I mentioned in my Imbolc post, the intention behind sharing the Celtic festivals more deliberately with them this year is to give us more markers through the year to pause and rest at. To bring a new dimension to our love of nature, take in the changing season, be present and feel grounded in what’s here, now.
If you haven’t explored any of the Celtic/Pagan festivals before, Ostara is a great jumping off point with children because it’s so very here. We only need to step outside the door to notice the shift in the air and, with Winter as a contrast, it’s the very best time for a ‘let’s notice what’s different outside’ adventure.
My boys and I had a lovely dinnertime conversation about Ostara this week. I shared what it was and asked what the word reminded them of. ‘Easter’ they quickly spotted. We talked of Spring; bulbs and plants springing up. Of the balance of light and dark. They spotted that there must be one in Autumn as well. Yes, the Autumn Equinox or Mabon. We wondered what all the new beginnings were and thought of spring flowers, veggie seedlings, blossom, bunnies, birds building nests ready for their young, wild garlic, eggs, chicks, ducklings. Ducklings being especially close to my eldest’s heart at the mo because our neighbour is incubating the duck egg he brought home from the school ducks.
There are a couple of stories in the book I’ve quoted above that we’ll probably read over the weekend. An almost child-friendly version of the Persephone story which I’ll edit as I go and another from the Ashanti people of Africa. I also love the book Celebrating the Great Mother which has chapters on each festival, we’ll likely dip into the Ostara chapter of that one too.
Ostara things to do with children
A noticing walk
I should say now that this will be on every list in this series of posts. It’s really the loveliest way to pause and observe, whatever the age of the children. The more we take these conscious walks the more their reverence for and connection to nature grows. Even when they’re reluctant to go, ‘let’s see what’s different’ get’s them bought in fast and ‘you show me the way’ seals the deal here. I prefer this wide open approach to the tick-list style nature hunt, but really it’s whatever works for you. Last year, my two made me chuckle when I realised they’d brought along a notepad with two columns marked pink and white and they were making a tally. Ah, blossom days.
Nature table
This is always the first and most enjoyed switch up in our home. When they were littler, our nature table used to be pretty for a day and then trashed quickly by all the nature treasures brought home in pockets and emptied out on to it. Beautiful in it’s own way but it did make me chuckle when visitors came and saw a messy pile of bark, leaves and acorn cups on our dresser top. These days our nature table has found a home on the playroom windowsill in our new house and it’s become a thing of beauty. A place where our loveliest handmade seasonal bits and bobs are brought out and a beautiful scene is made. This year so far there’s a green rolling landscape, spring-hued flowers popping up alongside flower fairies, perhaps soon to be joined by felted bunnies hopping around. It’ll stay there for the season, often added to and always a lovely source of inspiration.
Seasonal story re-fresh
At 6 and 9 year old I thought maybe the days of our seasonal story basket were numbered, with chapter books and independent reading happening more and more. But they still enjoy it and I’m glad because family reading time is such a good time for reconnecting and fostering the love of story, language and words. The pre-cursor in my mind to active, rich imaginations. See this post for some of what’s in our Spring basket, though I’m sure I’ve snuck a few more in there since I wrote that. Chapter book-wise, try Milly Molly Mandy Spring (perfect for 4-6 year olds) and Enid Blyton Springtime Stories (we also listen to this one on audible). For home-edders, I’d highly recommend the Floris Books book simply called ‘Spring’ which is wonderful for stories and seasonal songs. I’ve used this series a lot while temporarily homeschooling my youngest.
Garden days
As the light balances temporarily and a step out the back door brings a new scent each day, all eyes are on the garden. We’ve been the grateful guardians of this patch of earth for over a year now and while the first year was largely about watching and waiting to see what came up, this year is about breathing new life into this space of ours. Ostara is definitely my favourite time of year in the garden. The emergence. The new growth. The promise of what’s to come. Just so lovely. And finally, after puzzling and wondering what this garden needs to both flourish and feel like ours, inspiration has arrived. There were times last year when there was nothing much doing anything so we’re excited to add to the planting, create some wildflower patches, add to our veg patch and an epic bug hotel is in the works. Oh and some swings. There has to be swings.
Garden days this Spring will be slow and mindful. The boys will play between bouts of mucking in and they’ll see how a (hopefully) beautiful garden emerges from our regular but never arduous work. Three things I’ve noticed that help them get involved: being involved in the dreaming, planning and shopping for plants, running with some of their ideas for a sense of ownership and having proper robust child-sized gardening tools and gloves to hand. It helps that lots of it will be edible!
When they were were little and we had a tiny garden we found a lot of mileage in growing cress on the window sill and sowing nasturtiums and calendula (marigold) in pots. All pretty fail safe and quick to sprout which was essential in those days of zero patience.
Wild greens
This is the time of year my children love foraging. You can see clearly what’s emerging, there are less nettles to swipe ankles (and more clothing on anyway) and after a winter of the lanes around us looking much the same each day, we now see and smell something different every time we step out.
We’ve already picked our first bunch of wild garlic and made this pesto. My eldest, R, has big plans for wild garlic focaccia this weekend so we’ll be heading back for more. It’s very prolific in the woods near us. A friend swears by early nettles being the best nutritionally (I’m not certain how accurate this is but I go with it), so we’ll be taking gardening gloves to pick some for tea (use it fresh or dry it to store), to add to soup with the wild garlic and the same friend also juices them. I’m also aware there are so many others wild greens and herbs springing up that I don’t know the benefits and uses of so our challenge this year will be to learn about and possibly use at least two new ones.
Please be very certain that you are picking what you think you’re picking and do your own research about the use and benefits of wild greens. I’m not an expert.
Ostara crafting
There are plans for twig nests and felted eggs. Wind-fallen birch branches are perfect for bending and twisting into nest-shaped rounds, adding moss or some soft down or wool if you like. Wet felting around an egg shaped pebble or tightly packed wool roving will keep my children happy for hours. We’ve also seen paper chain eggs we want to have a go at and N is keen for more sewn felt flower fairies. The windows look a bit bare now we’ve taken our snipped snowflakes down so we’re dreaming up spring-coloured kite paper window stars. Then there’s Easter cards, daffodil garlands, all the baking potential and our Easter tree will go up at some point, though we’ve plenty of homemade decs stored away for that. And not strictly crafting but we’d like to help the birds with theirs by leaving them out some natural nest-building materials.
We won’t do this whole list, but likely more than we usually would because with my youngest at home with me at the moment we have that bit more space for creating.
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The way the dates have fallen this year it feels like we have a natural window of a month between Ostara and Easter (yes, of course, we celebrate that too) so I’m looking forward to spreading all this out across that time. Chilled out festivalling is definitely the way I like it. And as always, we’ll do what we feel like and have un-rushed time for and leave the rest.
An important part of this festival is it’s focus on new beginnings and balance so we will not be over-doing it and I encourage you to make that good choice too. Taking that same thought within, I’ll be working on the question what would give me/us more balance. This is a good time for choosing new ways of doing and being, maybe with some intentions being set at the new moon in a couple of weeks. What kind of new beginning do we need?
If you have any Ostara traditions, activities and thoughts it would be lovely if you’d share them below in the comments if you’d like to. Thanks for reading!
The Darling Buds of Me 